hi my girl had her pups on mon morning it is her 1st litter and is doing well but ive been advised to have the dew claws removed i know it seems to be standard practice at about 3 -4 days but is it really nesscary my girl has still got hers and my rescue collyx has still got his any advice please thanx

Are you referring to foreclaws (front legs) or on the hindlegs.

The former should be left alone (in my opinion) but ones on the rear legs ought to come off as they can cause problems.

If they were mine I'd get the vet to take them all off (front as well as any back ones) at 3 days old. We see a lot of damaged dewclaws at the vet where I work.

It really depends on the breed, i breed Boxers and its part of the breed standard, it doesnt hurt them, i was really worried on my first litter but they never made a noise and slept in the car on the way home, i would have them removed due to the damage that can be done.

Yes, some breeds like Briards are supposed to have rear dewclaws. I have even encountered them in Yorkies though which rather startled me! My Cavalier has front dewclaws and they have never caused any trouble, they don't stick out like they do on breeds like Labs. When we had puppies last year we did not have them removed, I just made a note in the puppy info sheet that they had them and they need clipping. :-)

I'd never remove front ones -my dogs use them for holding bones when they chew. In my latest litter however I had quite a few pups with rear ones and they had to go, both due to breed standard and practical reasons.

Hi saffie,

I'd get them all removed - front and back (if any). 
Of the dogs I've owned which still had them (front, never rear) each resulted in serious injury further down the line and all but one needed to have them removed as adults following trauma.  One still with them has had two injuries to date and if there's another my vet recommends they be removed.

Dew claws which are ripped, torn, caught on something can cause immense pain, risk infections and require quite a lengthy period of recovery.
They can also cause injury to ourselves and children if on a particularly bouncy dog (I'm covered in 'ID' marks as living proof :-D )

My dogs without dew claws (whether having them and then removed later or having them removed as 3 day whelps) have all been adept at holding onto bones, climbing fences/frames etc so IME that reasoning doesn't come into it.

It's all personal choice of course :)
regards, Teri  

You must have had a lot of bad luck Teri, I've had 25 dogs with front dewclaws and only ever ONE with an injury. :)

Luck good or bad matters now't if the end results the same.  Perhaps if you'd had 25 BSD you'd have had more than one problem.

On the plus side it's lucky it doesn't affect their bone holding abilities (TIC) :-D

thanx for all the replys i need to let the vet know this afternoon if ive decided to have them done still not sure the pups mum still has hers and she is a very active dog and they have never caused her any probs i just cant bring myself to put the pups through it its a very hard decsion thanx any way

Even so Teri, if all your Belgians have had injuries and I've had none in 4, it still doesn't mean all Belgians do injure themselves if they have front dewclaws. And I do think it is removing a body part that IS used -whatever the use is. Seems I can't say anything you agree with recently, doesn't it? :(

> Seems I can't say anything you agree with recently, doesn't it?

Oh you daft bat Marianne - that's a compliment in Glasgewian BTW! :-D  We don't have to share the same opinions on things or agree on anything for that matter, it doesn't make one of us right and t'other wrong and shouldn't (hopefully) cause any ill feeling between us :)

I know nowt about cats, mini mammals, GRs, Paps, CKC and, apart from being able to make an informed opinion on them in the show ring, very little about Malinois except that character-wise they are probably like the other BSD varieties in that they are all different :)  I would add that I know nowt about a helluva lot of things for anyone thinking I've stopped short here :-D 

Just to clarify

> if all your Belgians have had injuries and I've had none in 4, it still doesn't mean all Belgians do injure themselves if they have front dewclaws

Of course it doesn't - there are so many factors!  Much will depend on the kind of exercise they are given for eg those who run in woods, scrub land etc are at a higher risk (regardless of breed!) than dogs exercised in well kept parks and rock free beaches.  As it happens I have a (reasonably) well kept garden but a lot of very large and established shrubs and trees at the back and most, but not all, of the injuries to dew claws have happened in the garden rather than exercise outside.  Dogs play rough as you know so it's probably the luck of the draw.

As to the rights or wrongs of removal that's personal to each of us as is the experience of whether or not removal has had a detrimental affect - thankfully not in the case of my own :)

The OP was looking for opinions - those given may or may not help the OP to reach a conclusion on what's best for them and theirs  :)

Teri

I have had dogs with them without injury and dogs with them who have had to have them removed due to constant injury.
Personally I have them removed (and did with my last litter) as it is terribly painful when they do hurt them.

I have never had dew claws removed and never had a problem with tearing... maybe just luck. No other lab owner that i know have had problems with dew claws on front (on the back legs is a different story)... but yeh maybe it varies between breeds.

Our lab had terrible trouble ripping her front dewclaws.

> In my latest litter however I had quite a few pups with rear ones

Just a quickie - does this mean they didn't all have them?  Some born with, some without?